Xiu Xiu Announce Duets Album 'Oh No', Share A Bottle Of Rum Featuring Grouper's Liz Harris
Wednesday, 27 January 2021
Written by Jon Stickler
Photo: Julia Brokaw
Xiu Xiu have shared details of a new album of duets.
'Oh No', the experimental duo's 12th studio record, will arrive on March 26 through Polyvinyl. It will feature guest collaborations with Sharon Van Etten, Owen Pallett, Chelsea Wolfe, Alice Bag, Deerhoof's Greg Saunier, Drab Majesty's Deb Demure Twin Shadow's George Lewis Jr. and Angus Andrew of Liars, among others.
To celebrate the news of the follow-up to 2019's 'Girl With A Basket Of Fruit', Angela Seo and Jamie Stewart have unveiled lead single A Bottle Of Rum, an alt-pop track featuring Grouper's Liz Harris. Stewart said:
"About a year ago I bought a cheap bajo quinto, which is a 10 string low register guitar like instrument used in Tejano, conjunto and norteño musics. As it is a cheap one, only certain chords sound good on it. One of them, annoyingly, is the open ‘cowboy’ voicing of D major. When we started Xiu Xiu, founding member Cory McCulloch had a lot of rules for the band. One of them was we could never use this chord. It has become a creative game in the last few years to try and break some of these rules but in a way that respects that Cory had very good reasons for imposing them in the first place, so in this voicing, D major is an insipid chord.
"I had been trying to write a song on this bajo quinto to no avail and then drunkenly (A Bottle Of Rum) listened to the Grouper song, Heavy Water/I'd Rather Be Sleeping. A spark shone and feebly I tried to write something that, at least at first, sounded like it. I had asked Liz Harris, the gem behind Grouper and who is an old friend, if she would sing on this new record of duets. Initially I thought of her for another song but she specifically, although not knowing she had been the inspiration behind it in the first place, asked to be on this one. If the stars ever have aligned... well then."
Head below to check out the song's accompanying video, directed by Seo, as well as the album's artwork and tracklist.
'Oh No' tracklist:
1. Sad Mezcalita (Sharon Van Etten)
2. I Cannot Resist (Deb Demure / Drab Majesty)
3. The Grifters (Haley Fohr)
4. Goodbye For Good (Greg Saunier / Deerhoof)
5. Oh No (Susanne Sachsse)
6. Rumpus Room (Angus Andrew / Liars)
7. Fuzz Gong Fight (Angela Seo / Xiu Xiu)
8. I Dream of Someone Else Entirely (Owen Pallett)
9. One Hundred Years (Chelsea Wolfe) [The Cure cover]
10. A Classic Screw (Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo)
11. It Bothers Me All the Time (Jonathan Meiburg / Shearwater)
12. Saint Dymphna (George Lewis Jr. / Twin Shadow)
13. Knock Out (Alice Bag)
14. A Bottle of Rum (Liz Harris)
15. Ants (Valerie Diaz)
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